Pages

21 Sep 2013

The road North towards Kaokoveld

Namibia:
Kaokoveld: Opuwo

The route North from Twyfelfontein
to Opuwo is a well graded gravel road, blissfully devoid of the 3 inch deep
corrugations that had made the main road from Swakopmund so tiresome. The problem with this road was that it was too good. On the long straights our speed crept up to
over 60MPH and after a while we were almost lulled into thinking we were
driving a “normal” car. Such delusions
of grandeur came abruptly to a halt every time we came to a corner – Tonka’s
primitive suspension and high centre of gravity had us drifting on the gravel more
than once. Further entertainment came
from concealed dips and troughs in the road.
Hitting these at full pelt was too much for the springs and the axles banged hard up against the chassis – maybe our suspension modifications in
Swakopmund had not been enough. But
using Tonka to travel fast is like asking Berlusconi to chair a woman’s rights
conference - not recommended.

After some hours as mile after mile
of the huge landscape drifted past, Josi scanned the scrub for wildlife and
wondered what would be our first big game sighting. As if on cue, it was at that moment that she
shouted “A giraffe!”

Bringing Tonka from
warp speed to a standstill took several hundred feet and by then we had to U-turn
to get the best view of Africa’s tallest animal. Although dwarfed by the scale of its
surroundings, this remarkable creature stood completely still as it watched us
watching it. Here, far from the taller
trees of east Africa’s savannah, its long neck seemed more of a hindrance than
a help. It had to stoop in an ungainly
way to feed on the desiccated leaves of the desert scrub. Looking rather solitary, this individual
gradually moved on with its distinctive, rather clumsy forward and backward
gait.

We had not gone more than 10 minutes
further up the road when (again) Josi pointed to what looked like a large
boulder, the outline of which broke the otherwise smooth contours of the
hilltop on which it stood. We could
easily have driven on without a second glance, but as Josi’s beady eyes
continued to stare at it, 2 enormous ears suddenly sprouted from its
sides. This “boulder” was nothing less
than a large desert elephant. This was a
slam on the brakes moment. Tonka
momentarily pondered the meaning of this, before lumbering to a halt and we
were treated to a perfect side-on silhouette of this amazing beast, tusks
protruding into the totally empty sky.
As with the giraffe, one of our first impressions was just how
stationary most of the wildlife is here.
In a landscape so devoid of nutrition that it takes many square
kilometres to support one large herbivore, the conservation of energy is key to
survival. It reminded us of Churchill,
who attributed his own success to just the same principle – “Never stand when you
can sit, never sit when can lie down.”

Save for an occasional flapping of
its ears, it stood stock still, moving only once to suck up a trunk full of
dust and snort it onto its back. We
wondered how such a vast animal could survive on the withered vegetation. It, like the rest of the wildlife here, must
be desperate for the long overdue rains.

Opuwo itself is a typical crossroads
town – bustling traders, roadside car workshops, tin roofed bars and a forlorn
looking supermarket. But pulling into
our destination of the *Opuwo Country Hotel” was a breath of fresh air. Camping in places like this is amazing value
for money. For the equivalent of US$30
we were given a great pitch with hot shower, electricity and braai. But the real value for money is being able to
use the lodge facilities and to rub shoulders with the package tour clients who
are paying a fortune to stay here. So
after putting up our tent, we scrubbed up as best we could and headed to the
main lodge. Here there was a friendly
bar, opulent reception area and an infinity pool overlooking the valley
below. A perfect stop over and our last
taste of luxury before the wilderness of Kaokoveld.

In the morning we squeezed every
drop of fuel we could into the long range tanks and then turned East onto the
small dusty road to Etanga.